This interview is drawing fire in several quarters for a couple of reasons. Before we get to those reasons, I thought Dana’s comments about keeping Yoshihiro Akiyama around (*cough* UFC Japan *cough*) and having him move down to Welterweight was interesting. “I have so much respect for that guy.”

As for Vitor Belfort, Dana clearly finds him to be a guilty pleasure as well. “When Vitor’s on, Vitor’s nasty.”

Speaking of nasty, that’s how Dana White reacted to Dennis Hallman’s trunks on Saturday night. “I’m actually very disappointed in my people that they would let him walk out with those on. C’mon, seriously.” Burt Watson in the doghouse? “It was borderline disgusting. I was grossed out by it.”

Unfortunately, Dana White didn’t leave it at that. He mocked Ariel Helwani and just like Rampage Jackson did in the past, Ariel’s manhood was challenged by Dana. “I could understand why you’d like them. I’m sure you love those shorts.”

Dana’s actions toward Ariel has drawn a lot of fire because of the company’s record in the past in dealing with slurs. It’s not a record that Dana or Rampage can run away from because there’s plenty of video and quotes publicly out there to display a wretched track record. However, I think aiming all the fire at Dana White in this circumstance is wrong for critics to do. I’m not defending Dana White nor am I defending his comments. His negative remarks speak on their own accord.

The focus here should be on the media and those asking the questions to interview subjects who verbally abuse them and get away with it. I can’t sit here and rant about Karyn Bryant two months ago with Rampage’s ‘motorboating’ incident and then suddenly absolve Ariel from this situation last Saturday night at UFC 133. Ariel is not a clueless fellow at all. He’s just made the decision to allow the remarks by Dana & Rampage to go unanswered in order to continue gaining media access to get paid at MMAFighting.com. If someone in the media doesn’t have enough respect for their own reputation, then who I am to stand up and defend them in a fit of righteousness? Dana White isn’t changing his stripes for anyone. A leopard doesn’t change its spots. So, if the critics want to aim their fire at someone in this situation, aim it at the appropriate target.

Bottom line, Ariel should not be afraid to defend himself at the very least against these kinds of attacks. By not standing up to these kinds of attacks, it sends a message to fighters and management that they have carte blanche to make the remarks to the press that they currently make. It shows a complete lack of respect for the ‘media’ by the UFC, but then again… when has their pushing around of the media hurt their bottom line financially? As long as people keep tolerating ‘business as usual,’ UFC will continue their brutish & disdainful behavior to the press. It’s behavior like this that will contribute to MMA remaining a niche sport and, in many cases, I think UFC is happy being popular enough to make solid cash but still not popular enough to be on the radar of the mainstream media in order to get scrutinized the same way that other professionals sports are microscopically analyzed.

Dana White explains why mentioning Fedor’s name gets him so worked up

ARIEL HELWANI: “On a personal note, how much fun did you have this week gloating with the fans online about Fedor? Just by looking at your Twitter, you’re having the time of your life here.”

DANA WHITE: “Yeah, I know. And I, uh, joke around. I really love to stick it to the Fedor fans because they’re such lunatics, man. They go crazy and they flip out and, you know, it’s been this battle that I’ve had with the Fedor fans and the Crazy Russians for years. I have no, I don’t dislike Fedor. I don’t hate the guy. The thing that just, and to be totally honest with you, the thing that really… upset me and drove me crazy about the Fedor thing is when the media and this group of fans were out there saying, you know, that this guy is the pound-for-pound best in the world, he’s the greatest, and I’m not busting your balls or anything, I’m just being honest, when there’s so many guys who really did deserve that title and those accolades.

“You know, back in 2005, was Fedor the best? I don’t know, we’ll never know the answer, and here’s the Honest to God’s truth. Fedor and the Crazy Russian know this, they know it. They can’t deny it, they can’t lie about it, they can’t say anything and if you do, you know the real fucking story and what the truth is. We went out and we made them a crazy offer to come into the UFC and to prove that he was the best in the world and they turned it down. Nobody in their right fucking mind would have turned that deal down but they did because they did not want to fight here and if they really did and I’m talking to you buys, the Crazy Russians if you really did turn that deal down because it was all about the co-promotion, then you destroyed, you know, a guy who could have come in and proven that he was possibly the best.

“It’s just… you can sit around and you can talk about all this stuff, he was given the opportunity to do it and he didn’t take it. They know it. You know what I’m talking about. We sat in a room and we were willing to do anything to make that deal happen. One thing you got to understand about us and you can think I’m lying and you can think whatever, talking about the fans, I don’t give a fuck what they think, I don’t care. I’m telling you the truth, when you guys say that you want to see a fight, I try to make that fight happen. That’s what I believe my job is and if you don’t believe it, then I don’t give a shit. It’s the truth. The Russians know it’s true and, whatever.”

ARIEL HELWANI: “And just putting all the debate aside, that’s why you are all fired up about, right? Because this is something you wanted to see happen and it bothers you.”

DANA WHITE: “I flew to some fucking island out in the middle of nowhere, okay? Did everything that they asked to do, did everything that they wanted us to do to go make this fight happen… and… we went there for nothing because those guys literally went there to not make a deal. So, it is what it is, it’s not my fault, you know? I’m not going to sit around and cry about it. I tried to do the fight that the fans wanted to see, I tried to make it happen and they didn’t want to do it.

“He would have come into the UFC and he would have fought Brock Lesnar, that’s what he would have done and we would have saw who won or lost. If Brock lost and Fedor won, I don’t make those decisions, the fighters do. But I went out there and gave him an insane offer. Insane. And I’m so glad he didn’t take it! Now that I’ve seen what’s happened and how this thing has played out, I’m thrilled that he did not take that offer. But, I, uh…”

ARIEL HELWANI: “For the record, can you tell us what it is?”

DANA WHITE: “For the record? Vadummy, Vadummy knows… the deal that was offered to him, you know, and his fucking guy who was some political guy laughed at the deal. I bet you’re not laughing now, are you guys? It is what it is. I told you that day in the room, I told them. I said, guess what? He’s one punch away from being worth zero. Come in and take this opportunity, this is what the fans want to see, do it. And you know you didn’t fucking do it and you know it is what it is. So, people can get pissed at me and say whatever, you guys don’t know half the shit that goes on behind the scenes. I know all of it.”

ARIEL HELWANI: “Can you tell us what he turned down?”

DANA WHITE: “He turned down a ridiculous. insane offer. Turned it down. And they fucked (up), you know it, you know you did and I bet you wish you could go back in a time machine and sit down in that room and re-do that deal, I bet you wish you could. But you can’t, so it’s over.”

47 Responses to “Dana White: “I really love to stick it to the Fedor fans because they’re such lunatics””

Fedor fans have been crazy for years. Now they get to see their hero get bashed by Dana White and squeezed to the last drop by his manager. This is going to be a fun few years watching Fedor fight scrubs and losing to half of them…

Dennis Hallman showed his privates during his fights due to his shorts. Bye bye Hallman. Joking around is one thing. Having small enough tights that they exposure yourself means it’s time to get out of the big leagues.

“Bottom line, Ariel should not be afraid to defend himself at the very least against these kinds of attacks.”

Where was the attack? White was JOKING around with him. The same way most people joke around about something like this.

I’m about as gay friendly as you will find…. But I also think that people need to take a joke.

Watching somebodies junk being exposed during a fight is about as great as watching a boob pop out during a female fight. If we wanted to watch porn, we would watch porn. I watch fighting for the fighting. Hallman’s outfit was a pathetic attempt at grabbing attention.

Ariel and Dana have a great relationship. Ariel is a smart guy and doesn’t ask the really tough questions because he gets virtually “all” the inside scoops. The “dig” by Dana to Ariel was perfectly innocent. No need at all to build something into that.

It is interesting that Akiyama’s future UFC tenure is predicated on him dropping to 170. Losing 3 at 85 is dropworthy. Of course Zuffa needs guys like him in order to grab more Japan interest.

I really wish I knew what Fedor was offered by Zuffa. Dana is very often so full of shit. If Fedor signed and lost one fight, his “boatload of money” could and would have been pulled from under him.

I guess he forgot Ariel is a professional and not a colleague; and to be honest, I guess I forgot as well because this comment didn’t even register with me when I first watched the interview. As far as I can tell, it didn’t register with anyone. That includes Ariel.

Unlike many who are being vociferous about this interview clip, I’m not worked up by it. Why? Because if a reporter/media type doesn’t want to stand up for themselves, then why should I stand up for them?

Dana shouldn’t be getting the heat here because his behavior is his behavior. Who should be getting the heat are people who tolerate it and enable it when they simply could walk away from it.

There’s a lot of unnecessary homophobia thrown around in mma, but this didn’t play like an attack on Ariel; it was White joking around with a guy he considers a friend, and isn’t any more meaningful than him calling Henderson ugly or Serra fat.

Now, the fact that the guy with the most journalistic access to UFC fighters is a personal friend of Dana that he jokes around with, that’s a more interesting discussion.

I agree with all above in regards to the White/Helwani banter…in regards to Akiyama being dropped after three losses…Dan Hardy wasn’t dropped after three losses…in fact…he’s headlining the next UFC event this weekend!

“Because I’ll tell you man, it was a scene. It happened in the Bay Area, and that crowd, they were right down the middle. You had every sprite that could sashay across the bridge from San Francisco chanting, ‘Anderson, Anderson,’ and you had every gangster in Oakland chanting my name. By the end of the night, the sprites and the gangsters had united, and they were all cheering for your man.”

Just more of Chael being Chael, right? Between the macho jingoism and homophobia, now he’s ripping off real-life heels.

“You know, back in 2005, was Fedor the best? I don’t know, we’ll never know the answer, and here’s the Honest to God’s truth. Fedor and the Crazy Russian know this, they know it. They can’t deny it, they can’t lie about it, they can’t say anything and if you do, you know the real fucking story and what the truth is. We went out and we made them a crazy offer to come into the UFC and to prove that he was the best in the world and they turned it down.”

Who was he going to fight in the UFC to prove he was the best Dana? Tim Sylvia? Andrei Arlovski?

That’s always the part of the argument people like to leave out “well he never came to the octagon and proved he was the best”… there was nobody besides those guys, Gabriel Gonzaga, and Randy Couture for him to “prove” it against.

I don’t know if he was ever the best pfp (HWs are always going to be lower on that list because of quality of competition), but he was obviously the best in the world for a very long time.

Fighting Tim Sylvia before he was coming off a loss would have been more impressive then fighting him after he lost to both Nogueira and Couture.

And fighting Sylvia and Arlovski in the UFC would have always been 100 times better then fighting Choi & Lindland.

It’s not that people leave out part of the discussion. It’s that despite the UFC not having the greatest Heavyweight Division, it was always much better then what he ended up fighting outside of the UFC….

Just look at what happened to Nogueira and Cro Cop once they entered the UFC. Cro Cop got upset by Gonzaga. Nogueira was never impressive. It’s without question that Fedor’s unbeaten streak would have ended much sooner then the path he ended up taking. By the time he started fighting better competition again, the sport had already passed him by….

“Fighting Tim Sylvia before he was coming off a loss would have been more impressive then fighting him after he lost to both Nogueira and Couture.

And fighting Sylvia and Arlovski in the UFC would have always been 100 times better then fighting Choi & Lindland.”

-It doesn’t matter when he fought them. He would have beaten them the same exact way. He was just that much better than them.

“Just look at what happened to Nogueira and Cro Cop once they entered the UFC. Cro Cop got upset by Gonzaga. Nogueira was never impressive.”

-Nog won the title from Sylvia in his first fight. Got Kod by Mir, then dominated Randy Couture (still a top 6 HW). He was 2-1 until running into Cain Velasquez, and one of those losses has the caveat of competing with a bad staph infection.

“It’s not that people leave out part of the discussion. It’s that despite the UFC not having the greatest Heavyweight Division, it was always much better then what he ended up fighting outside of the UFC….”

-Ummm, no. Not even close. The top of the UFC’s HW division before 2007-2008 was Tim Sylvia, Andrei Arlovski, and Randy Couture. You could also throw in
Gabriel Gonzaga. In that line Fedor dominated both Andrei and Tim. Big Nog dominated Couture, and Werdum beat up Gonzaga. The HW division was weak everywhere.

Fedor would have probably been undefeated for close to the same amount of time. The UFC would have matched him up with the same guys he ended up fighting, and maybe Couture and Gabe. The problem is Fedor would have beat up both those guys in all most likely hood. The only thing that can be said is Fedor might have gone up against Werdum quicker than expected and got a loss that way.

1) It DOES matter when you fight somebody. Fighting them when they are confident and on a winning streak is completely different then fighting them coming off a loss. That’s very simple stuff.

2) Nogueira has not looked good in the UFC at all. Just like Cro Cop. So he won? Fantastic. But he has looked sluggish and his abilities have not transfered well to the current state of the game.

3) And here is the biggest point you are missing…. You can play the “on paper” game all you want. But Fedor Emelianenko did not fight the best competition out there when he had a chance for years. He made it almost impossible to lose based on his fighting schedule.

You never know who he could have lost to. On paper, Cro Cop should have never lost to Gonzaga. But he did. GSP should have never lost to Serra. But he did. And this is what happens when fighters are in fighting in a company that constantly tests them. They lose, they lose often, and often times they lose to guys you wouldn’t even expect…. Like Mir beating Nogueira.

If Fedor was in the UFC, he wouldn’t have made it so long without losing. You don’t go from unbeatable for like a decade to looking horrible in 13 months without ducking some competition along the way so those vulnerabilities don’t shine….

The the best part about all of this is….

Fedor not only looked beatable over the last year…. He looked about as good as we all knew he was….. Not very good at all….

- Andrei Arlovski was on a big win streak. Tim Sylvia was the only one who wasn’t. If Fedor would have fought Andrei inside the UFC he would have been facing a guy off losses or only a win or two.

-Yes Fedor could have lost (quicker than he did) if he went to the UFC sooner. It’s just not very likely, and there is zero evidence that he would have. If the fights with Arlovski and Sylvia never happened you would have a point. That’s just not the case.

“If Fedor was in the UFC, he wouldn’t have made it so long without losing.”

Again your opinion, and one that doesn’t make much sense since the guys skills didn’t decline until 2009. People talked about him fighting a certain level of competition through 05-06, then he fought two top five HWs back to back and KOd em in the first round. He was also supposed to fight Josh Barnett who frankly was a better option back then than Gonzaga, Mir, or a third fight with Nog.

“Nogueira has not looked good in the UFC at all. Just like Cro Cop. So he won? Fantastic. But he has looked sluggish and his abilities have not transfered well to the current state of the game.”

Nope, not good enough straw man. He came in and was actually 3-1 in the UFC before he met Cain. We’re talking 06-08 here. Not how his skills relate to the HWs of today. Try to keep up.

“You don’t go from unbeatable for like a decade to looking horrible in 13 months without ducking some competition along the way so those vulnerabilities don’t shine….”

This shows it would actually do you well to learn some history of combat sports. RJJ was unbeatable, then in a 7 month period he was kod violently twice. Joe Louis beat everyone, then lost three times in a year period of time. Arthur Abraham was a wrecking machine, and looked at as the favorite to win the SMW tournament. Now the tournament is over and he’s barely top ten (and in boxing you know that’s bad). Hell just 4 years ago Chuck Liddell was the best LHW in the world, and top 3 PFP. Within 6 months he was 0-2 with a terrible chin.

Some fighters decline over a long period of time. Some have a RAPID (capital letter just for you) fall.

“Fedor not only looked beatable over the last year…. He looked about as good as we all knew he was….. Not very good at all….”

No honestly, the best part about this site sometimes is knowing that you actually believe some of the ridiculous opinions you put down on the screen. Yes you are right sometimes, but when all you do is throw spaghetti at a wall; sometimes its gonna make numbers.

If you actually believe that Fedor never was “great” then your just not an intelligent individual.

edub thank you. you posted the most spot on intelligent comment i have ever seen on here. every time i read these comments i feel sad about the future of mma. i’m glad to see mma fans that know what they are talking about.

2002-2005 was an extremely weak era in HW MMA. Really in every division except for 205.

Fedor’s legacy is built on the wins over Nog & Cro Cop and to a lesser degree on Herring. Herring and Nog were considered the top guys when they fought. Nog winning put him there. Then Fedor destroyed Herring and fought Nog and took over the #1 status. But he wasn’t legendary yet.

Nog managed to get through the brutal first round with Cro Cop and subbed him which made Nog a big star. Fedor beat him again in a terrible fight and beat Coleman, Randleman and CroCop. Aside from that he fought freakshow fights Ogawa, Zulu, Nagata etc.

And then there’s the one glaring fact that Fedor fans like to pretend never happened. That Ricco Rodriguez beat Nog and beat him more convincingly than Fedor did. Except Ricco got jobbed by the crooked judges in PRIDE so Nog got the “W”.

Nog and Cro Cop showed you what they really were when they came to UFC. Guys who can be in good fights but aren’t top contenders. It’s exactly what Fedor is.

There’s no question Fedor was the best of those guys from 2002-2006 or so. But it was an era where the talent wasn’t that good.

Uh, Nog came into the UFC and won the belt after Randy retired. He was the number one guy in the UFC for 2008. The number two guy who they put up against him to fight for that interim belt was Tim Sylvia. Since Fedor had already beaten Nog twice, it made sense to have him fight Sylvia at that time.

Completely agree that Ricco beat Nog. I would love to have a conversation with Matt Hume, just to argue with him for his scoring of that fight. I don’t care how many times Nog threw up thoughtless submissions. Ricco won the fight (just like Randleman beat Rutten).

However, I do think Fedor beat Nog worse than Ricco did.

“There’s no question Fedor was the best of those guys from 2002-2006 or so. But it was an era where the talent wasn’t that good.”

That is my point, and I would go all the way to 2007-early 2008 (when Carwin, Lesnar, Cain, JDS, etc. would have been ready to fight him). Just going to the UFC to fight against the same guys you beat up outside the UFC isn’t going to make any difference.

Let me wish Matt Hamill a fond farewell. He fought his ass off ever since entering MMA, and it definitely weathered his body. I always enjoyed watching him fight, and think he was very underrated throughout his career. Just look at the guys he’s gone against in a career that was basically all high profile (Bisping, Munoz, Ortiz, Franklin, Jones, Rampage, Gustaffson). He’s retired, and I wish him all the best.

And while I bashed Scott Coker…. He was already 3 steps ahead of Pro Elite at this stage.

1) He signed the EliteXC fighters.

2) He had a “go to” location in San Jose.

3) There was still a lot of talent out there not used by Zuffa.

Pro Elite has none of those things. Even if they purchased Bellator, there is almost no talent to draw crowds in that entire company.

But it does make it easy to see why Zuffa purchased Strikeforce now. It’s much easier to wipe out Pro Elite with no talent compared to wiping them out with all of the Strikeforce talent under their umbrella….

Fuel would definitely be the primary carrier for UFC programming. FX already has a full schedule.

I suspect Fuel would get all the canned stuff (Countdowns, Unleashed, Best of Pride, etc.) and the smaller live events, FX would get a handful of mid-level cards (replacing UFC on Versus), and the broadcast Fox network might dip their toe in the MMA pool once or twice on a trial basis.